


The B(eauty) in Apartment 23

by potted_plant



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Frank Iero is also a cutie, Gerard Way is a cutie, Gerard is scared of cockroaches, I'm bad at titles but the story is cute I promise, M/M, based loosely on true events, but only a couple times, his roommate is out of town, rated T for swearing???, whatever shall he do?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-16 10:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12340671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potted_plant/pseuds/potted_plant
Summary: Frank is woken up by a cute boy asking him to kill a cockroach. Vegetarianism be damned, how could he say no to a face like that?





	The B(eauty) in Apartment 23

_Knock! Knock! Knock!_

Three soft knocks on Frank’s door woke him up from the mostly-asleep state he was in. He had been watching old _Full House_ reruns and trying to stay awake, but to no avail, until whoever was at the door had _rudely_ woken him up, that is. He supposes he shouldn’t be mad that he woke up, since he was trying to stay awake in the first place, but damn it! No one likes to be woken up, especially if they weren’t supposed to be sleeping in the first place.

Frank turns off the TV and gives himself a once-over to make sure he was at least halfway decent before opening his front door. 

“Hello…?” Frank looks at the guy who woke him up, and suddenly he’s not annoyed anymore. Frank had never seen this guy before, but he was pretty cute. Frank could forgive him for waking him up. 

“Hi,” the guy says. He keeps looking away, Frank notices. “I’m so sorry to bother you, but…”

Frank doesn’t hear him. He keeps looking at the guy’s face, noticing little details. He’s got a cute little nose with faint freckles dusting over it, and his eyes are a beautiful shade of brownish-green. Hazel? His black hair is kept slightly messy–although Frank’s not sure if that’s intentional or not–that frames his face ever so slightly. He’s never seen him before, he doesn’t think, but then again, he doesn’t really pay attention to his neighbors anyway. Frank wonders if he’s just moved in, or if he has lived in this building for a while.

The guy shyly looks at Frank and cocks his eyebrow.

_Oh shit! He needs me to answer him!_

“What?” Frank blinks at him. So much for first impressions. _Now he’s going to think I don't care…_

“…Um, there’s a huge roach on my wall, and my roommate isn’t here, so…” Cute Guy trails off.

“…A cockroach?” Franks wants to smile at him, but he doesn’t. That would be rude.

“Yeah. I was wondering if you could maybe…help me get rid of it? I’m not the best with bugs…so…” he keeps playing with his hands, holding them up to his chest and fiddling with his fingers.

“Sure. Yeah, cool. I’ll take care of it for you.” Frank hopes that didn’t sound as eager as he thought it did.

Frank follows the guy to his apartment. As it turns out, he lives right next door. Frank wonders how he hasn’t seen him before.

As the guy opens his door, he turns his head to Frank and says, awkwardly, “I’m Gerard, by the way.”

“I’m Frank. Nice to meet you.”

When Gerard gets the door open, he steps inside very carefully, calculating his every move. He keeps looking around, especially at the wall behind his couch. That must be where the cockroach was. 

“Thank you so much for this, honestly. I don’t know why I’m so scared of bugs, but I can barely look at them without wanting to scream,” Gerard laughs a little, while still nervously looking around for the offending insect.

Frank smiles, “It’s really no problem. They _are_ pretty creepy.”

Frank walks over to the wall Gerard was looking at and assesses it. When he sees nothing, he pulls back the couch to check behind it.

Gerard has taken shelter in his kitchen, as far away from the roach as possible. He keeps his hands close to his chest as he sits on his kitchen counter, warily looking at Frank. 

“Do you see it?”

“Not yet–wait…” Frank thought he saw something on the floor move, “I think I found it.”

Frank reaches down and pulls off his shoe, ready to stake out the roach. He pushes the couch out a little farther and sees it scampering away from him. 

Game on.

Frank quickly moves around to the other side of the couch and slams his shoe down on the roach, but misses. 

“Did you get it–AUGHHH IT’S OVER HERE IT’S OVER HERE IT’S OVER HERE GET IT GET IT,” Gerard shrinks into himself as he continues to babble incoherently in panic.

Frank thinks it’s kind of cute how Gerard is so scared of a harmless bug, but he wouldn’t dare show it.

Quickly and fluidly, Frank moves closer to the roach and finally ends its tiny life. He feels kind of bad about killing the poor thing, but in the end, he did it to save a cute guy, so it’s worth it. He’ll probably feel really bad about it later, though. 

Gerard had his eyes closed, but slowly opens one of them when he asks, “You get it…?”

“Yeah, I got it,” Frank stands up and walks over to get a paper towel. He returns to where the once-cockroach was before picking it up and looking around for a bathroom.

“Ah!” Gerard quickly understood and led him to a bathroom, getting down from the counter and opening a door, “Here. Thank you so much, by the way.”

“It’s nothing to worry about,” Frank drops the crumpled ball of paper towel into the toilet before flushing it down. _Goodbye, sweet friend._

“My hero,” Gerard says, sarcastically, but still somewhat seriously, “I would’ve probably burned the place down without you.”

Franks laughs a little, “It’s really no trouble at all. I get it, I get this way about spiders, too.”

“Even the small ones?” Gerard had a small smile on his face now, and it was taking everything for Frank not to tell him how cute it was.

“Especially the small ones!” Frank settled for, smiling in return. “They can get in to anywhere and sneak up on me while I’m sleeping.” 

Gerard laughs a short, honest laugh, and it’s probably the best sound Frank’s ever heard. “Well, I still can’t thank you enough for killing it. Now I have to call my roommate and chew his ear off for leaving me alone with the roaches.”

Frank laughs now, and debates the wording in his head before offering, “Well, I could always give you my number. For cockroach emergencies, of course…” God, he was so stupid. He doesn’t even really know this guy! He doesn’t even know if he’s _gay!_ What if he gets mad and never wants to talk to him again?

“I’m up for that! As long as I give you _my_ number, too. For spider emergencies, of course.” 

When Frank looked up at Gerard, he was grinning, before he quickly looked away. Frank was _soooo_ lucky he had heard Gerard knock on his door. 

Gerard and Frank swap phones and exchange numbers before bidding each other farewell. Reluctantly, Frank returns to his own apartment, locks his door, and flops down on his bed. 

He couldn’t help it; he looks at his phone, which is still showing Gerard’s contact page, and giggles like some teenage girl in a movie. 

For the first time in his life, Frank wishes there was a spider in his room.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! This is the first fic I've written in a while, and the first my chem fic I've ever written.  
> This story is loosely based on real events, as I am deathly afraid of cockroaches and had to ask my friend to drive all the way to my place at 2 in the morning just to kill it for me. That's how you know you have real friends.  
> Anyway, I forgot how fun writing is! Maybe I'll write more, as I already have a couple of ideas.  
> Please let me know what you think! 'Til next time!


End file.
